Coastal Container a 'one-stop shop' for packaging solutions

Monday

Jun 23, 2014 at 7:00 AM

By Brian.VanOchten@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4279

The leadership team at total packaging solutions provider Coastal Container does a lot more than just think outside the box at its sprawling 235,000-square-foot manufacturing plant on Holland’s south side.It thinks outside the plastic clamshell, cardboard egg carton and pizza box to make sure companies from Holland and elsewhere are protecting their products for shipment.“We’re a one-stop shop,” Coastal Container Design Manager Greg Groh insisted. “You come in … we’ll provide you with a solution. We make packaging for everything, from runs of 60 containers for smaller companies to bigger runs of 24,000 for General Motors parts.“We pride ourselves on coming up with real creative solutions and always thinking outside of the box.”Coastal Container, which occupies the former Sligh Furniture factory, reached $40 million in annual sales last year. It did just $17,000 in its first year after being formed in October 2007.The expanding firm, which is poised to double its workforce within the next two years, makes everything from protective packaging for Haworth Inc. office furniture to egg cartons for local poultry farmers, clear plastic containers for Bowerman Blueberry Farm Market and corrugated boxes that hold paper-thin-crust pies for Fricano’s Pizza carry-out orders.It also produces packaging that New Holland Brewing Co. and Saugatuck Brewing Co. use for shipping their craft beers.“I was employee No. 2 back when we were still drawing plays in the dirt,” said Bill Baumgartner, promoted to the president’s office at Coastal Container last month. “Starting from zero was a daunting task. We’ve undergone double-digit growth ever since we started.”It now has 110 employees and a fleet of 10 tractors and 20 trailers to transport its packaging. There are plans to add 25-30 more workers in the next 12-18 months, newly installed CEO Paul Doyle said.The Holland plant, at 1201 Industrial Ave., is making plans to add a second-shift workforce. It has enough acreage to expand up to a 400,000-square-foot manufacturing space on the current site.“We can easily double the output of this plant without breaking ground,” said Doyle, former Grand Haven Stamping CEO and president. “Coastal, as a whole, is looking at growth. It has grown from a business that was entrepreneurial to one that has large growth in front of it.“Our eyes are wide open. The future is ours to define.”It’s out-of-the-box thinking that makes its future burn so bright.The wood-fired boiler at the rear of its plant — a leftover from the Sligh Furniture era — has been converted into a heating source that burns dust it picks up from Haworth across the street.In the past, Haworth, which had turned to Coastal Container to solve a packaging problem, used to transport its dust to Flint for disposal. So, Baumgartner asked if he could collect Haworth’s dust and recycle it, improving both companies’ bottom lines in the process.Two silos provide storage for all of Haworth’s wood particles.Baumgartner said the wood dust heats the entire plant, resulting in an annual savings of $180,000.He and Doyle are looking into the possibility of installing a one-half megawatt turbine that’ll supply all of the electricity for the plant and allow Coastal Container to sell excess power back to Holland Board of Public Works.“This is not what other box plants do,” Baumgartner said of their alternative energy methods. “We approached Haworth and said, ‘What are you doing with your wood dust?’ It works out great for them and great for us.“If we start creating our own electricity, we’ll be the only box plant in the country doing that.”It’s a box plant whose leadership isn’t afraid to do things a little differently.Groh, nicknamed the “mad scientist” for his problem-solving skills, was the firm’s first hire. He is the embodiment of the out-of-the-box thinking at Coastal Container that has made the firm successful.“I love when somebody says I can’t do something,” he said with a big smile. “We make packaging for small firms, but we still compete with the big boys on the high-volume stuff. We’ve grown so fast in such a short amount of time and we’ve survived all of those automotive shutdowns.“I’ve never had a customer who came to us with a packing problem that we couldn’t solve.”— Follow this reporter on Twitter @BizHolland